While the members of the exhibition venue Udstillingsstedet Sydhavn Station (USS) exhibit their banner project Transition on the Line E, Austrian artist Oliver Ressler (b. 1970) takes over Sydhavn Station with his solo show Shifting the Centre of Things. Here audiences can explore the film There are no Syrian refugees in Turkey, the billboard work Stranded and the poster work Too Big to Fail. In their own way, these works elucidate and offer new perspectives on the social and societal consequences of the Western focus on economic growth. The film There are no Syrian refugees in Turkey from 2016 introduces the audience to five Syrian refugees who have actively decided not to travel onwards to EU countries in order to apply for asylum there. Instead, they have chosen to create a life for themselves in Istanbul. Adopting a documentary approach, the film unfolds a political analysis of Turkish and European migration politics from the viewpoint and experiences of its five Syrian protagonists. The Syrian’s decision to remain in Istanbul, and herby opting out of a future in Europe, break away from the Western delusion that Europe is one of the absolute centres of the world – a place which refugees and migrants by definition are expected to have as their dream destination. This shift of focus is also reflected in the exhibition title, Shifting the Centre of Things. KØS shows the work in its original Arabic version with English subtitles.

The large-scale billboard Stranded is placed by the station entrance. At first glance, the image looks like any other of the all-too-familiar media images of drowned refugees washed up on the shores of Europe. However, a closer inspection reveals that the men lying motionless on an empty beach in Stranded wear business suits – the kind of clothes we associate with politicians and managers. Placed partly in the water and partly on the beach, their bodies appear quite literally to be stranded. The poster can thus be regarded as a critical study as to whether we, the viewers, would respond differently to media’s images of disasters if those who perished were travellers of a different privileged kind. At the same time, the poster shifts the focus away from the so-called ‘refugee dilemma’ towards the question of who are the real agents of the economic and political model that causes Europe’s challenges with migration.

In the poster frieze Too Big to Fail, the four words ‘too big to fail’ are installed on a several-meter-long wall in the station. According to the artist, the phrase ‘too big to fail’ refers to how politicians, when faced with the threat of financial crises, claims that the public money should be used to save the banks from bankruptcy. The text’s letters in the posters consist of a photograph showing people at a demonstration organised on March 28, 2009, in numerous cities around the world. The protestors marched under the common slogan ‘We will not pay for your crisis!'. The demonstrations opposed the massive redistribution of public resources undertaken by national authorities. The work puts a focus on the fact that whereas times of economic austerity have rescue plans for banks, they have none for people in financial trouble. During the exhibition, USS will be manned by KØS staff, who will be happy to discuss the art and its themes with you.

Photos: Oliver Ressler, There are no Syrian refugees in Turkey, film, 30 min, 2016, courtesy the artist and The Gallery Apart, Rome

While the members of the exhibition venue Udstillingsstedet Sydhavn Station (USS) exhibit their banner project Transition on the Line E, Austrian artist Oliver Ressler (b. 1970) takes over Sydhavn Station with his solo show Shifting the Centre of Things. Here audiences can explore the film There are no Syrian refugees in Turkey, the billboard work Stranded and the poster work Too Big to Fail. In their own way, these works elucidate and offer new perspectives on the social and societal consequences of the Western focus on economic growth. The film There are no Syrian refugees in Turkey from 2016 introduces the audience to five Syrian refugees who have actively decided not to travel onwards to EU countries in order to apply for asylum there. Instead, they have chosen to create a life for themselves in Istanbul. Adopting a documentary approach, the film unfolds a political analysis of Turkish and European migration politics from the viewpoint and experiences of its five Syrian protagonists. The Syrian’s decision to remain in Istanbul, and herby opting out of a future in Europe, break away from the Western delusion that Europe is one of the absolute centres of the world – a place which refugees and migrants by definition are expected to have as their dream destination. This shift of focus is also reflected in the exhibition title, Shifting the Centre of Things. KØS shows the work in its original Arabic version with English subtitles.

The large-scale billboard Stranded is placed by the station entrance. At first glance, the image looks like any other of the all-too-familiar media images of drowned refugees washed up on the shores of Europe. However, a closer inspection reveals that the men lying motionless on an empty beach in Stranded wear business suits – the kind of clothes we associate with politicians and managers. Placed partly in the water and partly on the beach, their bodies appear quite literally to be stranded. The poster can thus be regarded as a critical study as to whether we, the viewers, would respond differently to media’s images of disasters if those who perished were travellers of a different privileged kind. At the same time, the poster shifts the focus away from the so-called ‘refugee dilemma’ towards the question of who are the real agents of the economic and political model that causes Europe’s challenges with migration.

In the poster frieze Too Big to Fail, the four words ‘too big to fail’ are installed on a several-meter-long wall in the station. According to the artist, the phrase ‘too big to fail’ refers to how politicians, when faced with the threat of financial crises, claims that the public money should be used to save the banks from bankruptcy. The text’s letters in the posters consist of a photograph showing people at a demonstration organised on March 28, 2009, in numerous cities around the world. The protestors marched under the common slogan ‘We will not pay for your crisis!'. The demonstrations opposed the massive redistribution of public resources undertaken by national authorities. The work puts a focus on the fact that whereas times of economic austerity have rescue plans for banks, they have none for people in financial trouble. During the exhibition, USS will be manned by KØS staff, who will be happy to discuss the art and its themes with you.

Photos: Oliver Ressler, There are no Syrian refugees in Turkey, film, 30 min, 2016, courtesy the artist and The Gallery Apart, Rome